The Heat’s Forgotten Man Steps Up

Over the past week, the world has learned three things about the Miami Heat: they play much better when Dwyane Wade gets into the paint; they are not very good at winning close games (but still very good at winning); and their newest, most fashionable fan, Justin Bieber, has forcefully stolen the title of N.B.A.’s most polarizing fan away from the reigning champion Kim Kardashian. None of that proved especially relevant Sunday night, during Game Two of the N.B.A. Finals, though, as the game featured very little Wade, even less Bieber, and a Heat blowout against the San Antonio Spurs. Instead, the outcome was determined largely by the play of the Heat’s fourth-best player, the oft-mocked Mario Chalmers.

For all the glamour this Finals matchup provides—four former Finals M.V.P.s, a former coach of the year, a philosophical clash in team-building strategies, and anywhere between four and six future Hall of Fame players—what we saw, during the most competitive stretches of last night’s game, was a reminder that both of these teams have been constructed to win with nearly any one of their players carrying the scoring load on a given night. Despite the Heat’s abundance of stars, their offensive sets rely on using the attention that LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Wade command in order to manufacture opportunities for role players like Ray Allen, Mike Miller, and Chalmers. The Spurs, under the coach Gregg Popovich, have always used their stars the same way, in the past giving underappreciated veterans like Sean Elliott and Robert Horry chances to make three-pointers and win them championships.

Whether by design or sheer luck, in the third quarter of Sunday’s game, the Heat began to use James to set screens for Chalmers, and, as ABC’s color analyst, Jeff Van Gundy, pointed out during the broadcast, the Spurs were reluctant to guard Chalmers once he moved past the pick, for fear of leaving James open. By the end of the game, the Heat was plus thirty points in the time that Chalmers was on the floor, a remarkable feat for any player, much less one who’s typically the forgotten member of his team.

Chalmers’s play, combined with James’s return to form as a passer, was enough for the Heat to finally pull away from the pesky Spurs and even the series at a game apiece. And it was clear that they had to pull away if they were to win. In spite of the team’s dominance Sunday night, there is a pall that permeates Miami’s American Airlines Arena whenever the Heat finds itself in a close game late in the fourth quarter. It is, even today, difficult to rationalize why Miami’s players immediately revert to their 2011 selves during these waning moments: their screens are sloppier; they somehow lose control of the limbs necessary for rebounding; they commit uncharacteristic turnovers. The Heat was down one game to the Spurs because they failed to piece together a very reachable victory in the opener of this series, despite having spent the majority of that contest in the lead. Some, including Wade and James, are content with chalking up Miami’s abysmal fourth quarter in Game One to fatigue, but consider this: since the “Big Three” joined forces in 2010, the Heat have gone 36-32 in games decided by five points or fewer. In all other games, they are 177-47. The team is exceptional at amassing large leads, but when it fails to do so, it becomes intensely vulnerable.

For a long time, the Heat’s struggles down the stretch were blamed on James. Over the past two seasons, however, he has successfully acquitted himself from most of the blame—he has, single-handedly, won multiple games for Miami. But for the most part, the success of the Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s spread offense has been a product of James’s steady improvement as a passer. For the Heat to succeed in close games, players like Chalmers, Allen, and even Bosh and Wade need to convert on the opportunities that provides. If they do, a week from now, people will be discussing Miami’s late-game heroics instead of the celebrities who show up to its home games.